Tag Archives: Women in Family Medicine

Mentoring Female Residents

Sarina Schrager, MD, MS

Sarina Schrager,
MD, MS

There are many unique aspects to being a female physician. Being a female faculty member brings with it another layer of complexity to the relationships with female residents. As a mentor and role model for female residents, we have a unique responsibility to help shape their future.  Like it or not, our residents look to faculty as not only teachers of medicine but teachers about life as a physician. And, a female physician at that.

The female residents in my program often seek me out to discuss issues not related to their education in family medicine but related instead to how they want their lives to look after residency or how they can balance residency with their current lives.

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I Have a Confession

Cheryl Seymour, MD

Cheryl
Seymour, MD

WomenInFMThis is the fourth in a work/life balance series written by members of the STFM Group on Women in Family Medicine.

The ACGME Draft Program Requirements for GME in Family Medicine include a requirement that all core faculty work full time. Please consider the implications of this requirement for your program now and in the future as you read this post.

So I have a confession… I really do want it all.

Doesn’t everyone?

I want to practice full spectrum family medicine: deliver babies, round on the floors and in the ICU, care for families in the clinic, nursing home, and at home and I want to teach residents and students, have a vibrant academic career, serve as an advocate for the health of my community and I want to be an engaged and loving parent and spouse.

Is this possible?

My mentors and heroes are physicians who have delivered three generations of babies, attend funerals as a matter of course, and have literally spent thousands of hours listening to residents’ H&Ps in the middle of the night. They have served the same community for decades and are still going strong, taking call without complaint, into their sixth and seventh decades.

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Breast-feeding and Family Medicine Faculty

WomenInFM

This is the third in a work/life balance series written by members of the STFM Group on Women in Family Medicine.

Colleen Fogarty,MD, MSc

Colleen Fogarty,
MD, MSc

Returning to work after the birth of a baby challenges all mothers, regardless of the age of the child. However, for breast-feeding mothers, there are special considerations.

Compared with 25 years ago, we’ve made substantial progress in returning to breast-feeding as the best method of infant nutrition. The World Health Organization Guidelines of exclusive breast-feeding for 6 months, followed by weaning foods and continued breast-feeding until 2 years, are widely promulgated by us in family medicine.

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